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Job 40
1 Then Yahweh turned to Job, and he said:
2 Is Shaddai’s opponent willing to give in? Has God’s critic thought up an answer?
3 Job replied to Yahweh:
4 My words have been frivolous: what can I reply? I had better lay my finger on my lips.
5 I have spoken once… I will not speak again; more than once… I will add nothing.
God is master of the forces of evil
6 Yahweh gave his answer from the heart of the tempest
7 Brace yourself like a fighter, now it is my turn to ask questions and yours to inform me.
8 Do you really want to reverse my judgement, and put me in the wrong to put yourself in the right?
9 Has your arm the strength of God’s, can your voice thunder as loud?
10 If so, assume your dignity, your state, robe yourself in majesty and splendour.
11 Let the spate of your anger flow free; humiliate the haughty at a glance!
12 Cast one look at the proud and bring them low, strike down the wicked where they stand.
13 Bury the lot of them in the ground, shut them, silent-faced, in the dungeon.
14 I myself will be the first to acknowledge that your own right hand can assure your triumph.
Behemoth
15 Now think of Behemoth; he eats greenstuff like the ox.
16 But what strength he has in his loins, what power in his stomach muscles!
17 His tail is as stiff as a cedar, the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.
18 His vertebrae are bronze tubing, his bones as hard as hammered iron.
19 He is the masterpiece of all God’s work, but his Maker threatened him with the sword,
20 forbidding him the mountain regions where all the wild beasts have their playground.
21 So he lies beneath the lotus, and hides among the reeds in the swamps.
22 The leaves of the lotus give him shade, the willows by the stream shelter him.
23 Should the river overflow on him, why should he worry? A Jordan could pour down his throat without his caring.
24 So who is going to catch him by the eyes or drive a peg through his nostrils?
Leviathan
25 Leviathan, too! Can you catch him with a fish-hook or run a line round his tongue?
26 Can you put a ring through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?
27 Will he plead and plead with you, will he coax you with smooth words?
28 Will he strike a bargain with you to become your slave for life?
29 Will you make a pet of him, like a bird, keep him on a lead to amuse your maids?
30 Is he to be sold by the fishing guild and then retailed by merchants?
31 Riddle his hide with darts? Prod his head with a harpoon?
32 You have only to lay a finger on him never to forget the struggle or risk it again!